With Grand Prix Omaha coming up this weekend, I decided to try my hand at Jeskai Ascendancy. When I played against Josh Utter-Leyton and Tom Martell at Worlds, it felt like their deck was unbeatable, but it hasn’t really taken over Modern the way I thought it might since then. Whether it’s great or not, there’s a good chance this weekend will be the last major tournament it’s legal for, so I thought I’d take it for a spin while I had the chance.
The list I’m playing is very similar to their list from Worlds, except I’ve cut a Remand for a Flame Jab, which kills Delver of Secrets, Young Pyromancer, and mana accelerants while offering some insurance against stalling out with Jeskai Ascendancy. The sideboard I’m playing is very different as I’ve moved away from the Gifts Ungiven package entirely.
That first game was beautiful, but it’s possible that it sent me down the wrong path for the following games. I think my strategy was right, since they’re pretty good at interacting, but it’s possible that they’re even better at grinding, and while I’ll need to hold off on the combo most of the time, I still want to be focused on doing it eventually.
In the second game, I think I should have just cast Jeskai Ascendancy on turn 3. I don’t think I got enough out of waiting, since my next land entered-the-battlefield untapped, and my opponent probably would have cast Seal of Primordium if they had one. Of course, my opponent did end up having a Seal, so that might not have worked out well. In hindsight, the real problem was fetching Steam Vents rather than Sacred Foundry so I couldn’t just play Faerie Conclave and hold up Path. Maybe I should have just played Conclave and not worried about Path, since my opponent didn’t have Amulet of Vigor. I think my opponent played the third game pretty well by grinding with Primeval Titans into transmuting for more threats rather than just playing Ruric Thar. The threat of Ruric stopped me from preparing to go off, and then I had to answer the less important titans that were in play.
Round 4
I thought game 1 looked pretty good, but I didn’t properly deal with my opponent’s hand full of counterspells. I should have Path’d the Restoration Angel before trying to fight through counterspells with Jeskai Ascendancy. The third game was pretty amazing. I wish I’d had time to finish it. I think I likely could have won if I wasn’t constrained on time.
While I failed to get any wins, I think at least half of those losses were my fault. This deck is very hard to play, and I’m not sure that I was sideboarding perfectly. I think most players try to play the deck exclusively as a combo deck too much and miss chances to win as a control/value deck, but I might take it too far in the other direction.
